Court grants an interim order restraining the government of Tanzania from evicting residents in the land bordering Serengeti National Park

East African Court of Justice, Arusha, 25th September, 2018: The First Instance Division has granted an interim order restraining the government of Tanzania and its agents from evicting the residents of Ololosokwan Village Council and 3 other Villages from the disputed land bordering Serengeti National Park.

An Inquiry into the Status of Implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

World over, the territories of indigenous people overlap with the rich bio-diverse areas. Their identity, traditional practices, customary laws, and livelihood are tightly inter-linked to their land and natural resources. Protection and management of natural resources ensure their survival, physically as well as culturally. These forest and nature-dependent communities are increasingly coming in conflict with their respective governments and powerful corporations due to the rise in urbanization, changing economic factors, and push for mega projects across the globe, thereby making it more difficult for them to secure their basic rights and access to land and natural resources. Similar to the global trend, the rights of tribal and other forestdwelling communities in India, who constitute eight per cent (2011 Census) of the country’s population, are also being expropriated leaving them further marginalized.

Guidelines on Free, Prior and Informed Consent - FPIC

These guidelines, designed to be applied by UN-REDD Programme partner countries, “require States to recognize and carry out their duties and obligations to give effect to the requirement of FPIC as applicable to indigenous peoples”.

These guidelines are only applicable to countries that are UN-REDD participants which diminishes the potential impact and reach of the guidelines. In addition, by focussing on indigenous and forest dependent communities, many other communities in need of such protection are beyond the reach of these guidelines. With these limitations the UN continues down the road of developing a web of overlapping guidelines. Why does the UN continue to build such a morass of programme based guidelines rather than moving towards moving towards a universal right to FPIC for all communities with demonstrable rights to land or the resources on it? – JC.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON RIO+20 AND MOTHER EARTH

"We continue to inhabit and maintain the last remaining sustainable ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots in the world. We can contribute substantially to sustainable development but we believe that a holistic ecosystem framework for sustainable development should be promoted. This includes the integration of the human-rights based approach, ecosystem approach and culturally sensitive and knowledge-based approaches."

Fortress Conservation versus Human Rights in the Indian Ocean

According to confidential UK-US diplomatic correspondence disclosed by Wikileaks in December 2010, the ulterior motive for the establishment of a ‘no-take’ BIOT marine reserve by the UK Foreign Office – anticipating the outcome of the litigation – was ‘to prevent any of the Chagos Islands’ former inhabitants or their descendants from resettling in the BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territories)’.

African Union backs Mauritius against UK in dispute over Chagos.

"Decides to support fully the action of the Government of the Republic of Mauritius at the United Nations General Assembly with a view to enabling Mauritius to exercise its sovereignty over the Archipelago."